Tag: Olga Azzuz

Ukraine 2014 – Life During Crisis

It was volunteers who did the most at the protest, but politicians were necessary too, especially to help get people out of jail. The politicians also offered the protesters organization and helped them raise their demands. But although some politicians tried, “politicians couldn’t lead the revolution.”

The crisis in Ukraine began on November 21st, when the former president, Yanukovych had refused to sign an agreement with the EU that he had been promising to sign for over a year. He wanted instead to form closer ties with Russia. Students went out to Independence Square known as Maidan, to protest. The police used violence to disperse them, which brought a lot more people out onto the streets. More and more gathered to protest, and stood there through freezing temperatures and violent conditions. They are still standing there today until there are a new government and order in Ukraine. I applied for a grant from the Prague Freedom Foundation to go make a difference in Ukraine. In Ukraine, I spoke to Olga, Irina and Eduard. Their stories were originally published on my blog, http://www.olenakaguiukraine2014.wordress.com.

Olga:

Olga Azzuz, a dentist at one of the field hospitals describes what happened in Kiev as “the scream of the soul of the nation.” In her opinion it is important for Ukrainians to deal with this issue by themselves, however, “if the West can help out, then they should.” She spoke coldly about Yanukovych and his people, calling them bandits. She said that they “traded their bandit clothing for suits when Yanukovych was elected and stole money from the nation.” They then put this stolen money into Western banks. “They confused their own pockets with the nation’s pocket,” she said.

At the beginning people just wanted to go talk to those in power, “but when people went to the government, their way was blocked,” which angered them. According to her, there is no proof that it was the protesters who started the violence but violence did begin after almost 3 months of peaceful protesting. A lot of outrage came when the government enforced strict laws against protesting. Azzuz was particularly angry about this, saying “If we continued to live that way (following those laws) we would live as slaves in a dog house on a leash, seeing the sky only through bars.”

Before the protests even began, inflation was getting really bad; people could no longer afford food. After rent and food were taken care of, they had no extra money to spend on clothes or anything else. The gap between the poor and the rich expanded.

This revolution was a revolution of educated and intelligent people who had diplomas, who ran their own businesses, explains Azzuz, “it was the people who had something in their lives and wanted to defend it.” These protesters had no rights in the eyes of the government, and that was the problem.

The amazing thing about Maidan was that the self-organized volunteers came where they were needed. They would do whatever they were capable of to show support – cook, fight, draw, speak or pray. All the necessary ‘positions’ were filled by people who had those particular skills. The volunteers would meet and they greeted each other like family. There was a real sense of unity.

It was volunteers who did the most at the protest, but politicians were necessary too, especially to help get people out of jail. The politicians also offered the protesters organization and helped them raise their demands. But although some politicians tried, “politicians couldn’t lead the revolution.”

Azzuz then told me that everyone at Maidan worked together to keep it clean. When it snowed, they would clear snow from the paths and use the snow to build and enforce barricades. At one point the garbage collectors refused to come to Maidan. So the protesters gathered all the trash, filled up several cars and brought the trash bags straight to the dump. They demanded that next time the trash collectors came, and they began coming regularly again.

There was a big problem with taking protesters to hospitals because the Berkut would stop ambulances and harass the injured – Azzuz’s word of choice to describe Berkut’s behavior was “sadistic”. So volunteers decided to organize their own field hospitals and used regular passenger cars to transport the injured to protect them.

A lot of the patients who were stopped by Berkut were never seen again. There was one particular patient who Azzuz treated; he had very serious injuries, broken teeth, ripped lip and broken bones in his face around his nose and eyes. He told her that a Berkut officer was beating him in the face yelling “I will rip your head off.” He was one of the patients who a random stranger took to a hospital in his car. Azzuz called hospital after hospital asking about him. He had lost his passport and they hadn’t had time to give him fresh clothes before they had to run, and she was very worried about him. After very many phone calls, she reached a nurse who told her he was recovering from surgery to reconstruct his face. She reassured her that they are taking care of getting him a new passport and had been given clothes that were donated to the hospital. Azzuz thanked her and was relieved to hear that at least his story had ended well, considering the circumstances. During those times, any good news added a little hope and pointed towards a better future.

Irina:

“We are women but we can still help, at least morally,” said Irina, who’s been working in the Cossack kitchen for three months. She is a student in Kiev and when I asked her why she came, she looked at me like it was a crazy question, “all my people are here… I live here so I’m going to stand here until the end.”

I asked her if she was scared. “Sometimes,” she said, “especially that night.” She referred to the night when Berkut stormed Maidan. But she didn’t let her fear stop her from doing what she believed was right. She found a way to help her people, like everyone else at Maidan. Politicians and their parties are often mentioned when people speak about Maidan, but they usually have a hidden (or a not so hidden) agenda, it is ordinary people like Irina who are the true heroes of Ukraine.

Eduard:

I really wanted to speak to the Afghan war veterans, who were very active at the protests. But the man who had the authority to speak for them wasn’t there yet. So Eduard Kryhov offered to tell me his story and show me one of the field hospitals.

He was in and out of Maidan since it began, alternating between spending time with his wife outside of Kiev, and living in the veteran tent. He helped out a lot at one of the medical points, and one night, they were told that Berkut was about to storm them. He has had a knee problem at the time and knew he wasn’t able to help carry injured men out to safety. Instead, he grabbed a hand-grenade and walked up to where the Berkut could see him. The 64-year-old man showed them what he was holding and said, “Look at me; I have seen all there is to see, I don’t care anymore, if you come in here, we will all die together.” The Berkut did not attack the medical point; Kryhov had saved several lives with his bravery.

Kryhov took me to one of the field hospitals at Maidan, where people were still coming to get treated. One man needed stitches removed from his lip and eyebrow, he looked badly beaten. Others came to get dental work done, or to treat a fever or a sprained arm. Kryhov took me into an empty room, made me some tea, offered me bread and showed me pictures of his friends and asked me to put them online. He told me about how he used to live in Prague 9 and Brno and about his wife. He made me see what everyone meant by Maidan uniting people when we parted ways we hugged each other like old friends.

I was very lucky to meet such a wonderful and kind man. He had helped save the country not once but twice – first in Afghanistan and now at Maidan. He taught me that one person can make all the difference in the world.

This post was updated on June 14th, 2018: the text, as well as title and headline, may have been edited, proofread and optimized for search engines. The featured image may have been changed due to copyright or quality issues.
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One Field Hospital – War in Ukraine

I spent several hours in one of the field hospitals in the very center of Maidan. I spoke to several nurses there, but mainly Iryna Zakharchenko and Olga Azzuz. They pointed out the nurse who was treating the first victim of the protests, the Armenian boy who died on January 22nd 2014. The hospital had paper signs showing which room was used for what, and the furniture was rearranged to transform this office building into a hospital.

Another nurse told me that volunteers began coming in from all over Ukraine, including regions such as Kievska Oblast and Poltava. During the most violent days they had an inflow of 100 – 120 patients a day. The doctors and nurses are still there now, and they come for free, “We have enough, we don’t need money,” one of the nurses told me. They all come because they want to, not because they were asked to. They take turns working, but some of them like Zakharchenko, the coordinator, work up to 15 hours a day 7 days a week. She was very hesitant to speak with me, because she isn’t doing this to get any attention from the media.

She told me that when it started they set up several different rooms for different purposes; therapy, surgery, psychology and dentistry. Humanitarian help brought in some medicine for them to use. During February 18th – 20th there were 100+ patients a day, 90% of the protesters came with bronchitis from breathing in so many dangerous fumes from the gas weapons. Some of them still have health problems as an after-effect of the gas. While Zakharchenko was telling me about this another nurse brought me a ‘souvenir’, I expected a flag or a badge, I was handed a gas mask.

The doctors and nurses at the hospital would help everyone who came in injured, protestors as well as guests to Maidan. “What about Berkut?” I asked, and a dark expression came over her face. “We would help everyone, Berkut too… but usually as a trade for them letting someone go,” she said, but pointed out that this was before February 18th when the most people lost their lives. On February 25th Berkut was disbanded.

She told me that Polish and Czech doctors came to help at the hospitals. Later, Azzuz took me to one of the other hospitals where the doctors from People in Need were stationed. Right now there are Ukrainian doctors from the Rod Cross as well as other foreign doctors who are being sent to Crimea in anticipation of violence. Although things are a lot quieter now in Kiev, Zakharchenko still works at the hospital for a lot more than the legal 8 hours a day, and she comes every single day.

“My soul called me to work here” she said. In the beginning they weren’t allowed to come to Maidan during work, so she would come after and brought food and clothes. When the fighting broke out – Kiev was closed – all over the internet people were saying that it was going to be stormed by Berkut. She wanted to stop people from getting hurt, so she came at 3PM and was trying to get women to leave, but they wouldn’t budge. There were 20,000 people there all from Kiev since no one else could enter and half of them were women. When the Berkut was supposed to come, Tyhnybok, a deputy from the Supreme Council came. He asked Berkut, “Will you really storm these women? What if your mother, sister or wife is here?” She stayed there until 8PM that night, and the Berkut did end up storming Maidan, and people were shot.

Once the shooting began, they set up the hospital. She brought her 19 year old son with her many times, because he would tell her, “If you don’t take me with you, I’ll come on my own.” They were very busy, people needed x-rays and surgery, and they needed all the help they could get. She wasn’t the only one who came with her son; many would come with their families, many students worked there all night.

Everyone would give first aid, but many of the injured needed more serious care. They didn’t have a fancy clinic for surgeries and they couldn’t create a perfectly sterile environment. But they had to preform surgeries, there was no other way, people had to be saved.

Her mother didn’t know that she was coordinating and working at this hospital. At one point reporters came to interview the doctos and got her on camera. This was shown on the news and the next day her mom called, demanding to know what she is doing and to know that she is safe. Everyone was scared.

The protesters were treated very roughly at Maidan. She found a boy sitting in a strange way with his hands bandaged up, she asked him if he was okay and he insisted that he was. She convinced him to come into the hospital; he had a really high fever. She gave him an IV and only then did he admit that he was in jail, beaten brutally, “they jumped on me, humiliated me, hurt me in every way they could,” he told her. He was only 18; he didn’t want his parents to know so they wouldn’t worry about him.

https://olenakaguiukraine2014.wordpress.com/2014/03/18/one-field-hospital/

Olga Azzuz – War in Ukraine

At the field hospital I spoke a lot to a woman called Olga Azzuz, who works there as a dentist. After her shift she took me around Maidan and told me how the protests started and how the situation escalated. She gave me insight on what the situation was like before the protests and how the nation came together to make a difference.

When fights broke out, Azzuz describes what happened in Kiev as “the scream of the soul of the nation.” In her opinion it is important for Ukrainians to deal with this issue by themselves, however, “if the West can help out, then they should.” She spoke coldly about Yanukovych and his people, calling them bandits. She said that they “traded their bandit clothing for suits when Yanukovych was elected and stole money from the nation.” They then put this stolen money into Western banks. “They confused their own pockets with the nation’s pocket,” she said.

At the beginning people just wanted to go talk to those in power, “but when people went to the government, their way was blocked,” which angered them. According to her there isno proof that it was the protesters who started the violence but violence did begin after almost 3 months of peaceful protesting. A lot of outrage came when the government enforced strict laws against protesting. Azzuz was particularly angry about this, saying “If we continued to live that way (following those laws) we would live as slaves in a dog house on a leash, seeing the sky only through bars.”

Before the protests even began, inflation was getting really bad; people could no longer afford food. After rent and food was taken care of, they had no extra money to spend on clothes or anything else. The gap between the poor and the rich expanded.

This revolution was a revolution of educated and intelligent people who had diplomas, who ran their own businesses, explains Azzuz, “it was the people who had something in their lives and wanted to defend it.” These protesters had no rights in the eyes of the government, and that was the problem.

The amazing thing about Maidan was that the self-organized volunteers came where they were needed. They would do whatever they were capable of to show support – cook, fight, draw, speak or pray. All the necessary ‘positions’ were filled by people who had those particular skills. The volunteers would meet and they greeted each other like family. There was a real sense of unity.

It was volunteers who did the most at the protest, but politicians were necessary too, especially to help get people out of jail. The politicians also offered the protesters organization, and helped them raise their demands. But although some politicians tried, “politicians couldn’t lead the revolution.”

Azzuz then told me that everyone at Maidan worked together to keep it clean. When it snowed, they would clear snow from the paths and use the snow to build and enforce barricades. At one point the garbage collectors refused to come to Maidan. So the protesters gathered all the trash, filled up several cars and brought the trash bags straight to the dump. They demanded that next time the trash collectors came, and they began coming regularly again.

Just that day, March 15th, something new was being built in the square. It looked like a pyramid and Azzuz and I went to investigate and spoke to the main builder. “This is the Pyramid of Peace and Unity,” he told us, it was built by ordinary people who came here and brought the materials to build it. It was 11.5 meters tall and on the ground it was 5 meters squared. Such pyramids have been built in Jordan and in other places, and they are spiritual places that convert water into energy. People come inside to heal; physically, mentally and spiritually. Not everyone believes in magical pyramids, but the point is that these people did, and they showed what the spirit of Maidan is all about – doing what you know and can to help others.

Maidan had many medical points, Azzuz told me, but they had to keep moving locations to stay safe from Berkut. Many illegal and very dangerous weapons were used in the fighting, and people would come in a lot with serious injuries. One time they were just finishing up tending to a group of injured protesters when someone ran in and told them that Berkut was on their way. They put people on stretchers and they used the Red Cross logo to protect themselves and to go out and find shelter. Some people could barely walk and a lot of roads were blocked off. A Polish church offered to take them in but the road to the church was blocked. They ended up walking in a random direction that had no blockades and they ran into a group of strangers who had cars. They saved them, and drove off the injured into real hospitals nearby.

There was a big problem with taking protesters to hospitals because the Berkut would stop ambulances and harass the injured – Azzuzes word of choice to describe Berkut’s behavior was “sadistic”. So volunteers decided to organize their own field hospitals and used regular passenger cars to transport the injured to protect them.

A lot of the patients who were stopped by Berkut were never seen again. There was one particular patient who Azzuz treated; he had very serious injuries, broken teeth, ripped lip and broken bones in his face around his nose and eyes. He told her that a Berkut officer was beating him in the face yelling “I will rip your head off.” He was one of the patients who a random stranger took to a hospital in his car. Azzuz called hospital after hospital asking about him. He had lost his passport and they hadn’t had time to give him fresh clothes before they had to run, and she was very worried about him. After very many phone calls, she reached a nurse who told her he was recovering from surgery to reconstruct his face. She reassured her that they are taking care of getting him a new passport and had been given clothes that were donated to the hospital. Azzuz thanked her and was relieved to hear that at least his story had ended well, considering the circumstances. During those times, any good news added a little hope and pointed towards a better future.

From what Azzuz told me, it is clear that she takes personal interest in her patients. She continues volunteering at the field hospitals to this day – she is a great example of what being a doctor really means, saving lives by any means possible. She isn’t getting paid for any of her work at Maidan, but helping people is enough of a reward for her.

https://olenakaguiukraine2014.wordpress.com/2014/03/18/olga-azzuz/

Brotherhood – War in Ukraine

Brotherhood was a word that I heard a lot yesterday at Maidan. Everyone there came on their own free will explains Olga Azzyz, a volunteer at a hospital, “we meet and we are like family.”

During my first 10 minutes in the square, I heard a woman speaking in Ukrainian on stage and she ended her speech with “Glory to Ukraine, Allah Akbar.” Despite Ukraine being predominantly Orthodox Christian everyone applauded and cheered as she finished.

But Maidan didn’t just unite Ukrainians, it also united Ukraine with other nations. Particularly Poland and Syria. The Polish had always been close to Ukraine, but they really proved their loyalty during the protests. “The Polish really helped,” said Azzuz, showing me a Polish Church that was willing to risk helping injured protesters who were hiding from Berkut, “they were real brothers.”

Ukraine and Syria had improved their relations in 2012. What Putin is trying to do in Ukraine today is something he already did in Syria. One of the performances on the stage in Maidan was about this Ukrainian-Syrian relationship, and the audience was filled with Ukrainian and Syrian flags.

https://olenakaguiukraine2014.wordpress.com/2014/03/16/brotherhood/